


Young, in Love, and Quite a Bit Paranoid

by scullysdesk



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-10 12:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4391171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullysdesk/pseuds/scullysdesk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My contribution to the College AU. It starts with Mulder heading back to the University of Virginia for his senior year, where he encounters freshman Dana Scully. My goal is to see it through to the end of Mulder's senior year. This fic will roughly follow my fanmix of the same name, found on 8tracks. If you want a continuous plot, look elsewhere. This will be more of a collection of scenes set in the same universe, if you feel me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Year

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the X-Files and I have no money.

I broke free on a Saturday morning  
I put the pedal to the floor  
Headed north on Mills Avenue  
And listened to the engine roar  
…  
My broken house behind me and good things ahead  
A girl named Cathy wants a little of my time  
Six cylinders underneath the hood crashing and kicking  
Ahh, listen to the engine whine  
…  
I am going to make it through this year  
If it kills me  
I am going to make it through this year  
If it kills me  
…  
And then Cathy showed up and we hung out  
Trading swigs from a bottle, all bitter and clean  
Locking eyes, holding hands  
Twin high maintenance machines  
…  
The scene ends badly, as you might imagine  
In a cavalcade of anger and fear  
There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year  
…  
I am going to make it through this year  
If it kills me  
("This Year" by The Mountain Goats)  
………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Mulder threw his duffle bag in the backseat and slammed the door. He wasn’t due to check back into the dorms for two more days, but he couldn’t take it anymore. It wasn’t anything in particular that set off his early departure; the weight of being home was just more than he cared to tolerate any further. The absent stares of his mother, punctuated with clockwork glasses of wine, and the half-assed attempts at engagement from his father had reached critical levels, and he had to get out. He intended to crash with the Gunmen for a few nights. He could suffer three meals of Frohike’s huevos rancheros a day if it meant not having to defend his psychology major over pre-law to his father for the eleventh time that summer. 

As he headed down I-195, Mulder’s mind wandered to its typical destination: Samantha. When he was younger, Mulder had certainly grieved the abduction of his younger sister, but in the confidence only attainable by adolescent boys, he was confident that his father would find her. He told his parents and the police exactly what he had seen that night, and he knew it was only a matter of time before Samantha came home again. As time went on, though, and Samantha did not return, a creeping, feverish suspicion took over Fox, and it became crushingly clear that not only was his sister never returning, but his parents had accepted this as truth. In fact, his father resigned himself a little to easily, and when he found the stack of library books on UFO abductions and memory regression hypnosis under Mulder’s bed (he was 15), he shouted at his son about upsetting his mother and then marched him back to the library to return them. Now, at the ripe age of 21, Mulder had grown accustomed to this weight, but unlike his parents, he was still convinced he could rid himself of it. He had no idea how, but he was sure that someday he would find his sister, or at least discover her fate. 

It would certainly be more efficient for Mulder to just take the plane ticket his father offered him every summer and Christmas, he realized this, but less travel time meant more time at home. He insisted on the 11-hour drive from Martha’s Vineyard to the University of Virginia every year, and honestly, the distance of the university from his home was one of the things that had appealed most during the application process. If nothing else, his intentions of putting as much distance between himself and his parents were less obvious than if he had chosen the University of Alaska. 

Eventually, just after sundown, Mulder pulled into the Dewey Pointe Mobile Home trailer park, where the Gunmen lived and blogged for the resistance, and made his way to the southwest corner of the park where the rusty box his three friends called home sat. The boys’ van wasn’t out front, but that did not necessarily mean no one was at home. It could just mean that Langley had gotten himself into hot water on the message boards again, and he felt the need to “go off the grid” for a while. Mulder put the car in park, grabbed his duffle from the backseat, and walked up the front steps. He tapped at the screen door, which was daintily latched over a menacing metal block sporting a maze of deadbolts (Mulder had helped Byers construct the door last summer after a particularly nasty bout of paranoia from Langley). 

When none of the locks began to click open, Mulder banged a little harder, shouting, “Guys, it’s me – open up.” To no avail, the door remained firmly shut. Mulder turned in place and stared at the flickering street lamp that hovered at the end of the short gravel driveway. Accepting his fate, he shuffled back to the car and climbed into the passenger seat, but not before grabbing the half-consumed bag of sunflower seeds from the back seat where he had tossed them earlier. Mulder fumbled for the lever under the edge of the seat and shifted it back to make room for his lanky, jean-clad legs. Next, he tilted the seat back as close to a horizontal position as it would go, and settled in for sleep. 

...............................................

Mulder awoke to a loud rapping on the car window and the damp brightness of the early morning sunlight. Mulder shifted in his seat and reached for his blanket to pull over his head, but instead tipped over the bag of sunflower seeds he had been sitting on. 

The sharp rapping continued, this time accompanied by a “Son, I’m gonna need you to step out of the car.” Mulder jerked back into consciousness and sat up, blinking confusedly at the police officer outside his fogged over window. The cop tapped pointedly at the window again, and this time Mulder fumbled his way out of the car. It took him a few seconds to realize he didn’t have any shoes on. 

“Son, do you care to explain what you are doing out here?” Mulder stalled for a few seconds with a throat-clearing cough. 

“I came to stay with the guys who live here, but they’re not home,” he said, knowing this only begged more questions. 

“So, you’ve been here all night?”

“Mmmhm,” Mulder affirmed. 

“Son, this is a residential area. You can’t stay here – do you have somewhere you can go until your friends get back?” the cop inquired. 

“I don’t know.” Mulder didn’t want to be too helpful. The cop eyed the duffle bag and other assorted boxes and bags in the car’s backseat.

“Well, I can refer you to several decent shelters in the area, but – “ Clarity hit Mulder like a slap in the face. 

“Wait, you think I’m homeless?” Mulder interrupted. The cop stammered. “No, I’m just waiting for the dorms to open up!” The cop stared at the sunflower seeds scattered in the car and around Mulder’s feet. 

“You fooled me” the officer deadpanned. “ I suggest you head to campus until your friends show up, and clean yourself up in the meantime.” He eyed Mulder’s bare feet and his hair that was sticking up in a thousand directions. Mulder narrowed his eyes, and when the officer didn’t continue, he realized the encounter was over. 

“Oh, yeah, I’ll do that,” he muttered, and turned and gingerly walked around to the driver’s side door as the gravel dug into his feet. 

After grabbing some breakfast from a McDonald’s drive-thru, Mulder made his way to campus. He assumed the library would be open by now, and he could wait there to hear from the Lone Gunmen. As he drove towards the library, traffic became more and more congested, finally coming to a halt in front of Shannon House, a freshmen dorm. New students and their entourages of parents and siblings streamed along the sidewalks, hauling boxes, floor lamps, and suitcases. Of fucking course. Freshmen move-in day. Mulder pressed his forehead into the steering wheel, cursing under his breath. Just as he began to inch forward, a pair of girls, one considerably taller than the other, both with alarmingly red hair, marched out into the road. The shorter one was carrying a battered cardboard box labeled “DANA’S BOOKS,” and the taller girl was lugging a large, navy blue suitcase. Mulder punched the horn and raised his arms in question at the two girls, obviously sisters. The taller girl (Mulder assumed she was older, judging from her height and what she did next) dropped the suitcase and slammed a hand down on the hood of Mulder’s car. 

“FUCK OFF,” she yelled, and pointedly took her time finishing her crossing. The younger sister gave Mulder a mortified stare and hurried to catch up with her sister, yelling the whole way as they walked into the building.


	2. Across the Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we meet Dana Scully, her roommate, and Scully encounters Mulder at the student activities fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a lot longer than I had planned. Work has been nuts, but hopefully things are calming down. Enjoy!

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes  
They call me on and on across the universe  
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box  
They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe  
Nothing’s gonna change my world.  
Nothing’s gonna change my world.   
("Across the Universe," Fiona Apple covering the Beatles)

………………………………………………………………………………….

Dana placed the last of her clothes in the bottom drawer of her university-issued dresser and shoved it shut. Melissa had gone back to New York City a few days ago, and Dana had finally brought herself to empty the last of her boxes before the “mandatory” hall meeting with the RA that evening. Classes began in three days, and Dana figured she should try to be mostly settled in before then. Before she could start on organizing her freshly purchased desk supplies (color coordinated file folders, Post-Its, and desk calendar), the door slammed open, and Dana’s roommate appeared, in a flurry of delighted exclamations and Vera Wang Princess perfume. Kelsey was a tall, gangly girl with a mane of naturally straight, but expertly curled, coffee-colored hair, and a chipper personality that bubbled from her every pore. In short, Kelsey was A Lot. 

“Dana, there you are! I just had the most amazing pizza in the dining hall! We HAVE to go try it! Also, don’t worry I checked in the rec room and I think we should be able to get decent seats for the hall meeting.” Kelsey fluttered over to her bed and grabbed a magazine off the nightstand. She held it up to her face and promptly set it back down on her chest. 

“Did you see the fliers for the Student Activities Fair tomorrow? What have you been up to?” Kelsey finally paused and came up for air, looking at Dana in earnest excitement. 

“Oh, I haven’t been downstairs yet – still unpacking. That fair sounds interesting, though. What all is supposed to be there?” Dana replied, doing her best to make conversation. She hoped that Kelsey’s chattiness was just a nervous behavior, and not a permanent fixture of her personality. To be honest, Dana had mostly unpacked while Melissa was still here. College just seemed a lot more daunting without her self-appointed bodyguard and anger translator by her side, and Dana was avoiding any encounters that weren’t mandatory. Kelsey, it seemed, was determined to be mandatory. 

“It’s going to be all the clubs and organizations, and all the Greeks. I know I’m going to rush ADPi, but I need to research my other options. Wanna go?” 

“I don’t think I want to rush, but I’ll check the other stuff out, yeah,” Dana replied. She had hardly been an “involved” student in high school, but all of the college prep books Dana had read recommended extracurricular activities as excellent ways to make oneself a more exceptional job candidate. Maybe there was an honor society or chemistry club she join to round out her resume. 

“Awesome!” Kelsey looked at her cell phone. “Oh, the hall meeting starts in 15; we’d better go get good seats!” She hopped off her bed and looked at Dana expectantly. Dana was hardly worried about the seating arrangements, but she was determined to be a good sport. Participating in social activities and meeting new people were crucial parts of the college experience. Dana determinedly climbed off her bed and pulled on her sweater. 

“Sure, lead the way,” she said, and she followed Kelsey out the door. 

…………………………………………………………………

The next morning, as she awoke, it took Dana a few minutes to remember where she was. It had been a few years since she had shared a room with Melissa, but she assumed the blurry figure across the room was her sister. That was, until the figure plunked a cup of coffee down on Dana’s nightstand and bid her an entirely too cheerful, “Good morning, sleepyhead!” 

Dana rolled over and blinked up at Kelsey, who, unsurprisingly, looked like she had been awake for hours. “What time is it?” Dana mumbled as she slapped her hand around looking for her cell phone. Why hadn’t her alarm gone off?

“It’s eight-thirty! I figured you would want some time to get ready. I brought you coffee!” That would explain it. Dana’s alarm hadn’t gone off because it wasn’t supposed to for another half hour. Kelsey was so earnest and pleased with herself, though, so Dana wasn’t about to tell her this. 

“Oh, yeah, thanks for that,” Dana replied, attempting to inject some chipperness into her voice as she turned off her phone’s unused alarm. She rolled off her bed, snatched the cardboard coffee cup off her nightstand, her bathroom caddy from the closet, and headed down the hall to the community showers. 

…………………………………………………………………

Later that afternoon, Dana followed Kelsey and the two girls from across the hall (Amara and Holly, but she could not remember who was which) out onto the quad to peruse the student activities fair. Dana had accepted the lunch invite from Kelsey with some skepticism (they already lived together and had plans that afternoon, why was Kelsey so intent on spending time with her?), but just as she was about to text a “no thanks” back to her roommate, Dana heard her mother’s voice in the back of her mind, urging to “go play with the other girls, they’ll think you’re a snob.” So Dana accepted the lunch invite with one girl she kind of knew and two she didn’t, and that was that. 

As the girls approached the fair, Kelsey and Amara or Holly bee-lined towards the cluster of sorority tables, the other (maybe it was Amara?) wandered towards the volunteer opportunities booths, and Dana, unsure where to go, walked to her left to get out of the way. As she walked, she made sure to keep a safe distance from the booths, close enough to see what they were about, but far away enough to avoid eye contact and the rehearsed sales pitches. At the end of the first half hour, Dana had gathered three brochures from different honors societies, put her email address on the roster of two science clubs, and only had one forced conversation. 

She turned down the next-to-last row that seemed designated for “special interest groups,” in the broadest sense of the term. There were tables for a Jane Austen reading group, a break dance and hip-hop dance club, a sewing circle, and something called the Society of Churchill Fellows. If nothing, Dana could always use a good laugh, so she continued through the maze of tables, banners, and displays, keeping an eye out for the most absurd ones so she could tell Melissa later. Towards the end of the row, Dana’s eyes skirted over a table labeled “Society for Paranormal and Extraterrestrial Research.” She snorted to herself; this one definitely made the top five. Unfortunately for Dana, however, her snort did not go unnoticed by the boy slouched in a faded purple lawn chair behind the table. 

“See something funny?” Mulder shot at Dana’s back as she turned away to continue down the row. Something combative and frustrated crawled up in Dana’s stomach; maybe it was the stress of starting college coming to a head, or maybe this guy was just really fucking annoying. She flipped her head around. 

“Excuse me?” she shot back, taking in the boy’s unkempt appearance of nice, name-brand clothing that looked like it had spent a lot of time on a dorm room floor. 

“I said, do you see something funny?”

“Not particularly; I just don’t really see the point in your club. What are you, like the Ghostbusters?” Mulder rolled his eyes with the weariness of one who had heard this joke more than once in his college career. 

“Actually we conduct scientific inquiries into incidents that can’t be interpreted through traditional means. For instance –“ Scully cut him off. 

“Actually, that’s not real science, but have a nice day.” She turned once more to leave. 

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. Using up-and-coming technology, it’s possible to detect entities that operate on other planes of existence and in other universes. Did you know – “ Scully cut him off again as Mulder came around the table, pamphlets in hand.

“No, I don’t know, and I don’t want to. Good-bye,” she interjected in her third attempt to end this encounter. The pair was beginning to attract the attention of nearby students. 

“No, but listen. The government –“  
“NO. You listen!” Dana shot back. “Your club is ridiculous and scientifically unfounded. Leave me the hell alone.” At that moment, Dana felt a hand on her shoulder. She whipped around. “Jesus –“ 

Kelsey had stepped forward from the crowd of on-lookers, realizing her up until this point reserved roommate was one of the students attracting attention. 

“Dana! We’ve been looking for you!” Kelsey said, pretending not to notice she was being watched. “Are you ready to head back?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” She didn’t realize how loudly she had been talking until she answered her roommate. Dana allowed herself to be led away, and with a few resentful “What are you looking at’s?” Mulder returned to his chair.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for anything ever, so feedback is wanted and appreciated! Next up: Scully does obligatory freshman stuff.


End file.
